Stories we followed in 2018: Fighting back against opioid addiction

A year that began with record overdose deaths also saw an unprecedented response.

Brett Sholtis is a reporter for PA Post. He’s also WITF’s Transforming Health reporter, focusing on health policy and personal health issues. Brett previously worked as a business reporter for York Daily Record. He’s a graduate of University of Pittsburgh.

Brett Sholtis / Transforming Health

A paramedic and EMT transport someone from an ambulance to the hospital.

The year began with the release of a grim estimate: Pennsylvania saw more than 5,200 overdose deaths the previous year.

That number was compiled based on county coroners’ estimates, and would prove to fall short of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s tally: 5,463 deaths.

With the streets flooded with a deadly mix of heroin and fentanyl, an average of 10 Pennsylvanians were dying each day of an overdose.

For people like 28-year-old Brittney Webster, naloxone has been a vital resource. Webster, who is in recovery and helps others who are in recovery, said naloxone helps people to live one more day while they fight against opioid addiction.

“People have to be alive to get the help that they need,” she said. “So, that’s what this is. It gives people a chance to choose recovery again.”

Her story also speaks to another trend: People became increasingly willing to share their stories of addiction and recovery in the hope of reducing stigma and helping others.

It became more common to see people listing drug overdose as the cause of death in obituaries.

And more people are touting the benefits of medication-assisted therapy, using drugs like burenorphine or methadone.

From Zeigler’s vantage point, people are getting better at understanding what leads someone to heroin addiction, as more and more people know someone personally who has gone through it.

“Of course, I have Facebook, and you see posts all the time, ‘they made that choice, they took that pill, they put the needle in their arm,’ but for a lot of people, like with my story, it didn’t happen like that,” Zeigler said. “I didn’t wake up one day and say, okay, I’m going to get addicted to pain pills and then get addicted to heroin. It was a gradual thing that I didn’t realize it was happening at first.”